Place of Definition, etc., in Philosophical Biology 



said of biochemical substances. 



Many biologists working in several provinces of the 

 organic realm, particularly in those which, like cytology 

 and biochemistry are concerned with the minute and 

 difficultly observed structure and functions of organ- 

 isms, appear to be laboring under the delusion that 

 they are doing something totally different from descrip- 

 tion. They seem to think their work apart from and 

 exalted above description if they can apply the terms 

 analysis, or especially causal analysis, to it. As though 

 the treatment of causal factors which are intrinsic in 

 an organism were not part of the description of that 

 organism, and as though causal factors extrinsic to 

 the organism; that is, belonging to the organism's 

 environment, were essentially a part of biology at all! 

 I believe full and unbiased consideration will convince 

 any one that the word analysis, occurring so frequently 

 in recent biological writings, always means analytic 

 description and classification, as these terms are eluci- 

 dated above, if it has any objective meaning at all. It 

 is undoubtedly true that as touching organisms them- 

 selves a vast amount of analysis has been practised 

 upon them that is not descriptive ; but this is because it 

 is purely speculative because it is subjective and not 

 objective. Most of the analysis of the characters of 

 adult organisms into "determinants," "determiners," 

 "factors," etc., of the germ, is of this sort. And as 

 touching the environments of organisms it is a remark- 

 able thing, once one comes to notice it duly, that the 



